Bundesbank pulls all stops to show Germans their gold is real

Much of Germany's gold reserve is back in Frankfurt. (Image courtesy of Bundesbank.)

By Carolynn Look

(Bloomberg) — If Germans have any doubts about the authenticity of their gold — and some of them really do — their central bank is doing all it can to qualm their concerns.

Germany’s Bundesbank this week launches a nearly six-month exhibition on gold, which will showcase the most interesting gold bars and coins in the central bank’s collection.

That follows its release earlier this month of a book on “The Gold of the Germans”, which “for the first time shows readers the gold bars in such a way as if they were held in their own hands,” according to board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele.

The subject of the country’s reserves became particularly heated during the years of the sovereign debt crisis, when lawmakers and members of the public began to wonder why it had taken so long to repatriate the Bundesbank’s gold amassed during the post-war boom.

Since then, the central bank has made an expedited effort to bring them back home, and it also made a short documentary on the subject.

“I can assure you that the gold of the Germans is stored and administered under the highest standards,” Thiele said at the exhibition’s opening.